BACKSHEESH IN TURKEY.

Evening Post, Volume LXIV, Issue 83, 4 October 1902, Page 13 (Supplement)

BACKSHEESH IN TURKEY.

In Turkey (writes the correspondent of the New York Tribune) Stale "tips" are a national institution, and it is related that M. Constans, the French Ambassador at Constantinople, who is a bitter opponent of "backsheesh" politics, carried with him several casks filled with Sevres porcelain statues of "La Baigneuse.'> Some of these $vere with pedestals, and others ' were without pedestals. There is scarcely a Turkish Minister or functionary in Pera or Stamboul who is not the possessor of a replica of the bathing-girl. Those with pedestals were reserved for important ofhcials of the Sultan's palace at Yildiz. One of the masters' of ceremony is reported to have received a present from M. Constans of a "Baigneuse," and, after examining it, supposed that there must be a handsome present in cash concealed in the pedestal. The pedestal was broken open and found to be empty. The functionary then imagined that the statue intended for him must have been exchanged by- mistake, and sent to some other official of lesser magnitude. So, in order "to ascertain the truth, the palace official, who happened to meet the French Ambassador at a diplomatic dinner, remarked, "I wish to thank you for the beautiful present you sent me." The Ambassador smiled affably in acknowledgement, and the official continued : "The pedestal was also beautiful. It was hollow. And, what is quite rare, I also found that it was empty."